"Richard Myers has always lived in Massillon, and Kent, Ohio. Since 1960 his films have synthesized his own dream world with that of America's collective unconscious, creating films that, while deeply personal and 'site-specific,' nevertheless resonate within the larger American landscape.
"Myers' films often times depict journeys to places that seem close by, but that virtually explore vast distances within the terrain of dreams and fantasies. His films are like reconnaissance tours through middle America, melancholic searches for something - an object, an idea, a person, a feeling. And the milieu of his films is often that of the carnival, the medicine show, or the movie theater.
"Myers started out as a painter, printmaker and photographer. As he puts it, 'What excited me most about film was the idea that it could all be done by one person, that he or she could do everything: conceive of the idea, shoot the film, make the sets, edit the film, do the sound, etc. Film allowed me to do all these things, and 'paint' images from my dreams, and personal memory.' For Myers, 'film is poetry, painting, and photography, all in one.'
"His first film, THE PATH, established his 'palette.' 'THE PATH, was a short silent film based on a dream,' Myers explains. 'I tried to direct the viewer through forms and substances, rather than with narrative and story. I thought of the film as a myth, - myth as an intermediate and indispensable stage between conscious and unconscious cognition.
The film visually and rhythmically evolved from unconscious direction, and most of my subsequent films have done the same.'
"Few American filmmakers equal Myers in breadth of work and perseverance of vision, built upon self-examination and a deep love of cinema. In articulating his own reality, his own dreams, Myers has created a body of work that constitutes one of the outstanding achievements in American filmmaking." - Ruth Bradley
"Light as the symbol of the ineffable. The 'plot' of this subjective recreation of a dream seems to concern a mysterious journey; the spectator, however, is visually directed toward forms and substances rather than to the protagonists by a filmmaker who is a master of visionary cinema." - Amos Vogel, Film as a Subversive Art
"Richard Myers has, thru his films, given us the ONLY consistently creative variable to dream-thinking in our time. All else, in film, slides toward surrealism and/or props itself with misplaced Freudian symbols, at best, or else gets lost in the Jung-le, at the verses. Myers' work is rooted in what he doesn't know about, just exactly what he knows - his own home grounds mid-America, and like D.W. Griffith he takes the great risk of being native to his art, attending it on its home-grown grounds/his-UNowned-dreams." - Stan Brakhage
1960, 16mm, b&w/si, 20m, $60
FIRST TIME HERE is not realistic; neither is it purely illusory.
It is a fantasy which alienates itself from the "real" world and takes us on a journey through the glitter-cardboard prop world of a carnival exhibit which shows "effects" of an atomic bomb on a mock city. Through particular details we see an organic and continuous chain of events which lead to an actual atomic blast. Through many generalized images the main theme of renewal is stated, FIRST TIME HERE is a celebration of the "mess" we have gotten ourselves into.
"Major discovery of the Ann Arbor Film Festival ...." - Pauline Kael
"Richard Myers shows extraordinary talent as a creative filmmaker. CORONATION is brilliantly executed; a psychological fantasy worthy of the highest praise. FIRST TIME HERE is both fascinating and deeply disturbing." - W.S. Doan, Director, Film Center, Hull House, Chicago
1964, 16mm, b&w/so, 24m, $75
Music by Fred Coulter. Costumes by James M. Someroski.
"Richard Myers is one of the most talented and one of the most unknown filmmakers in the country. Personally and geographically isolated from the hysterical film propaganda machine, we seldom hear his name; aside from the Ann Arbor Film Festival and its related tour, we never see his films. In the same sense that Bruce Baillie's MASS is generally regarded to be the film masterpiece of 1964, Myers' CORONATION ranks with the two or three very best experimental films of 1965. No experimental film that I know of can compare with it from the standpoint of sheer spectacle. In this respect it ranks with HOLLYWOOD, and in this respect I can pay CORONATION no greater compliment. Its rapid-fire narrative moves with the variety of news items found in a big city newspaper when on Monday morning it recounts the carnage of the weekend." - George Manupelli, director and filmmaker, Ann Arbor Film Festival
1965, 16mm, b&w/so, 23m, $70
Electronic music by Fred Coulter. With Bob Ohlrich, Pat Myers, Jake Leed, Mary Leed. "... a work of ambition and great technical virtuosity ... there is enough going on in AKRAN to command anyone's attention. And much of that is lovely and wonderfully difficult." - Greenspun, The New York Times
"AKRAN by Richard Myers was unquestionably the discovery of the year .... It captures in rapid brilliant flashes the fears, the frustrations, the hang-ups, the hopes - the emotional texture of young people today .... It is a fascinating, penetrating film, and introduces Myers as one of the most original and creative independent talents around today." - Arthur Knight
"Richard Myers is unquestionably a major talent of the American avant-garde and AKRAN one of his most important films .... It creates a Joyce-like, dense and somber mosaic of memory and sensory impressions, a texture instead of a plot, a dream-like flow of visually-induced associations." - Amos Vogel, Film as a Subversive Art
1969, 16mm, b&w/so, 118m, $150
DVD $50 home use $100 others
A conversation with a friend - Ahmed Akbar. A short interview-type film portrait with Akbar, a black filmmaker and former student of mine at Kent State. AKBAR expresses an unusual and exciting view of himself/blacks in America/and such varied subjects as "This moon race Shit!"
A friendly, lively, exciting portrait of a very extraordinary person from Akron, Ohio.
Award: Ann Arbor Film Festival, 1971
1970, 16mm, color/so, 16m, $50
ALLISON is a short, simple film about Allison Krause, one of the four students murdered at Kent State in May 1970 by the Ohio National Guard. It is a memorial film put together out of footage I and other students had shot of Allison Krause (unknowingly) during student demonstrations ... and later freeze-framed.
The soundtrack is Allison's father ... Arthur Krause ... reading a poem about Allison written by Peter Davies ... and reading a letter he wrote to Nixon ... and one that was never answered ....
1971, 16mm, b&w/so, 7m, $20
Bill and Ruby own a novelty store in Akron, Ohio. This film explores their world and their relationships to the objects in the store and to each other. Bill talks about the Depression, Baby Ruth candy bars, LBJ's "stomach," Milton Berle's "Chatter Teeth," and one of his best customers, a mental hospital in the Midwest. Ruby models Jackie Kennedy masks, wigs, oriental hats, the phenomenal MAD MONSTER.
From the first time I met Bill and Ruby I loved them and the strange, quiet simplicity of their world.
1970, 16mm, color/so, 34m, $105
Principal performers: Robert Ohlrich, Jake Leed, Mary Leed, Pat Myers. Music by Fred Coulter.
"Myers blends the shortening of space and time further, making, as did primitive tribes, all things present, here and now ...." - Anthony Bannon, Buffalo Evening News
"It is a modern equivalent of Dante's Inferno ... a journey by car through the landscape of today. The various horrors are fashioned out of everyday scenes, and people from typical plastic towns and cities ... a baroque death chant. At various times the tone of the film reminds me of Godard's highway crash scene in Weekend with its surreal nightmare mood.
"I do not hesitate to state that I consider it one of the really great 'personal' films, and certainly the most important film, to come from the experimental cinema in the last few years. It is the kind of film that grows in complexity with every viewing ...." - Bob Cowan, Take One
Awards: Ann Arbor Film Festival, 1972; Kenyon Film Festival, 1973.
1971, 16mm, color/so, 60m, $135
DVD $50 home use, $100 others
ZOCALO is a color, optically-printed experiment that uses as its base the Zocalo Square in Mexico City. Unlike my other films ... it began as a class experiment ... and because of my feelings towards the square itself ... pursued it in all its variations ... finished in December 1972.
1972, 16mm, color/so, 15m, $45
Nora Belle West Croft ... or better known as "Da" is my 90-year-old grandmother who has appeared in my other films (FIRST TIME HERE, AKRAN, & 37-73). This film is in the form of conversation-interview ... with her early recollections of Massilon, Ohio where I was born and where she has spent the last 65 years of her life. The film also has many early photographs of Massilon, Ohio (courtesy of the Massilon Museum) ... and many early photos from Da's personal album .... She is an extraordinary person ... at 90, vital and alive .... I have loved her all my life and I hope the film reveals some of her warmth and humor ....
1973, 16mm, b&w/so, 40m, $120
With Jake Leed, Kelly Myers, Mary Leed, Marjory Myers, "Da" Croft.
"Richard Myers' 37-73 was far and away the most noteworthy film in the Exposition (9th Annual Independent Filmmakers Exposition). In fact, Richard Myers is, in my opinion, one of the few innovative conceptually oriented filmmakers in the country. As powerful and complex as is AKRAN, 37-73 is more taut, richer in associative meaning .... 37-73 is about dreams, about memory and its associations with nightmare and magic." - Owen Shapiro
"I think 37-73 is an extraordinary work, and the best of [Myers'] long films. I am astonished by [his] skill in image making, and his power to evoke the crazy pain of being an artist. It is a haunting work, with unforgettable scenes ...." - James Broughton
Awards: Ann Arbor Film Festival; Athens Film Festival; Kenyon Film Festival; Gold Hugo Award, Chicago Int'l Film Festival, 1974.
1974, 16mm, b&w/so, 60m, $135
DVD $50 home use, $100 others
With: Jake Leed, Mary Leed, Pat Myers, Dick Myers, Kelly Myers, Marjory Myers and Da Croft.
"There's probably no filmmaker more successful in transmitting his imagination to the screen than Ohio experimentalist Richard Myers .... In FLOORSHOW he presents a rich stream-of-consciousness flow of images that encompass past, present, and fantasy, a contemplation of the filmmaking process, and film aesthetics. Myers makes a bolder-than-ever attempt to break down the barriers between the conscious and subconscious, the making of a film and the film itself. What Myers projects is an acutely personal vision of life so beautifully shaped and paced that we're able to connect with it even if we cannot expect to decipher its private meanings. Myers tells us that he needs to make films to justify himself, but he does more than that. He makes highly surreal works of art that invite participation. FLOORSHOW reveals a filmmaker who seemingly can express any state of mind with impact and eloquence." - Kevin Thomas, The Los Angeles Times
1978, 16mm, b&w/so, 90m, $150
Cast: Mary Leed, Jake Leed, Marjory Myers.
"JUNGLE GIRL is experimental film master Richard Myers' intensely personal tribute to Frances Gifford, star of the Republic Pictures serial of the 1940s. [A] gentle dream/memory work of haunting visual beauty ... and as original as Cocteau. ... [I]t helps to know Myers' stock company, mostly family members, but even if you don't, this homage to the brave Frances Gifford is absorbing as much for its backstage look at Hollywood as for its brilliant dream sequences." - Sheila Benson, The Los Angeles Times
1984, 16mm, b&w/so, 100m, $170
VHS Sale: $90 Home; $150 Other
DVD $50 home use, $100 others
"Most of [Myers'] movies, including all of his features, are surrealistic works based on his dreams. For Myers, dreams comprise an indispensable link in self-understanding. MOVING PICTURES, his latest film, is a formal tour-de-force in which everything [it contains] is captured in slow, horizontal tracking shots. It is a quiet, elegant, meditative work. [MOVING PICTURES] is also like carnivals of the unconscious with midway attractions that range from collage imagery to free associations. The viewer swoons as he takes in all the sights and sounds on hand - the lights and shadows, the striking compositions, the tantalizing fragments of speech and music, the catchy rhythms, the varied visual textures." - John Ewing, Cleveland Cinematheque and Cleveland Museum of Art
Awards: Ann Arbor Film Festival, 1990; Athens Int'l Film Festival; Chicago Int'l Film Festival.
1990, 16mm, b&w/so, 100m, $170
VHS Sale: $90 Home; $150 Other
DVD $50 home use; $100 others
Most of my longer films have been based on dreams and have been of a personal semi-autobiographical nature. Tarp represents my interest in more simple/basic visual themes: Color, shape, and "found object" filmmaking. I began "recording" all of the tarps in my immediate neighborhood and surrounding cities - tarps over cars and boats and campers, tarps as tents, on trucks and hanging from overpasses on freeways. The fragmented result still maintains a dream-like tone, yet speaks about the mysterious way we Americans cover-up and protect things and the strange locations in which we do it.
1993, 16mm, color/so, 20m, $40
"Myers' latest work takes its cue from the logic of dreams. We see a small traveling show performing in various outdoor locales; some actors do episodes from Frankenstein, Dracula and Jekyll & Hyde while another narrates in the aggressive monotone of a carnival barker. Myers intercuts clips from old movies ... footage from his own unfinished first effort ... a 'Frankenstein' begun when he was 12. All of these elements are deftly combined to interpenetrate rather than collide; ... the result is that present and past, personal and public, Hollywood and amateur theatre all seem to meld. The inclusion of these moments ... as well as the rickety stage, ... and Myers' sensuous, grainy black and white cinematography ... is the key to the film's tone and meaning; Myers casts his meditation on the tenuousness of all experience as a modest essay set in seemingly unimpressive midwestern locales, and rather than interrogating the relationship of life to theatre, he prefers to slide effortlessly between the two." - Fred Camper, Chicago Reader
Award: Ann Arbor Film Festival
1996, 16mm, b&w/so, 100m, $170
DVD $50 home use; $100 others
Edited by Kirk Yunke, narrated by Pat Myers, photos enhanced by Henry Halem, editing assistance on the diaries by Sandy Perlman
A portrait of the filmmaker's 94 year old mother based on the diaries she kept from 1924-1948. Marjory was an avid movie goer and the video includes stills from more than 150 movies she saw between 1924 and 1948. These movies related to the tenor of the times, and in many cases, to the tenor of her personal life. Early photos of Marjory are inter-cut with images of her from Myer's earlier films.
Diary Excerpts:
December 9, 1926: Tonight after school I hurried home, took a bath
and went to practice for the Follies recital. We got our costumes,
and boy there's no backs...and extreme short skirts. They're
terrible! I flirted with the drummer and he asked if he could take me
home. But he's a married man. Horrors! I said nix! I did have fun
fooling around backstage.
October 16 1927: Teense, Mid and I went for a short hike out
Millersburgh road and we took pictures. On the way we passed a farmer
and asked him if he had any apples. He said "No." And then his wife
came out and said if we didn't get out she'd sic the dogs on us. She
said we were road tramps, and she called me a little snot. All of
which I enjoyed. I guess she thought we were trying to vamp her jay
husband. Later we went to see Clara Bow in "Hula."
September 28, 1928: Gene Tunney is marrying Polly Lauder in Italy.
Herbert Hoover and Alfred E. Smith are running for president of the
United States. Hoover will get it because Smith is an ignorant
bumpkin of a slum kid with a swelled head and his wife is a gutter
snipe from the Bowery...Mama and I went to see Al Jolyson in the
"Singing Fool." It was my first Vitaphone picture and I'm crazy about
them! (Marjory Myers)
2003 DVD, color/sound, 90 min., $50 home use; $100 others
The Path, First Time Here, and Coronation
DVD $50 home use; $100 others